Once Upon a Hillside

By Author / Illustrator

Angela McAllister

Genre

Environment

Age range(s)

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

ISBN

9781801107525

Format

Hardback

Published

10-11-2022

Synopsis

Angela McAllister's seven original stories follow the changing landscape of lives on one hillside from the Stone Age to the present day.

Six thousand years ago, people first came to the hillside and a story began. A Neolithic girl, Roman twins, a herbalist's daughter, an orphaned bird-scarer, an archaeologist's niece, three children without a home. Each faced their troubles on that ancient downland. All found healing in the place that Granny Down calls home.

Wilderness, weather, history, archaeology and folklore infuse each tale. With gorgeous illustrations of the wildlife and surrounding landscape at different points in history, this glorious full-colour, gift book is a celebration of the enduring power of nature and lives well lived.

Reviews

In Once Upon a Hillside, Angela McAllister skilfully combines seven different, yet linked, stories following the changing landscape of a hillside over the course of six thousand years. It celebrates the healing power of nature, the beauty and joy to be found in the outdoors and how it connects us to the past.

There is so much to love about this story. Angela draws on folklore, her fondness for archaeology and nature's wonders to create something very special which would be an incredible choice as a key text to inspire and develop children's own writing. The stories are linked, not only by the landscape, but also by objects which are significant to characters being found those in the later tales. This idea of history from objects - the stories of past owners, the personal stories uncovered by archaeology - is one which fascinates children and the book could be used to develop work on the local area through significant or relevant periods of history.

This island is so full of history that every village (let alone town or city) has a wealth of material to draw on. My own village has an iron age hill fort, had a Roman temple (some say you can still hear the echoes of the footsteps of Roman soldiers haunting it!), was the site of a battle between the Saxons and Danes, suffered at the hands of Royalist soldiers and was flooded in the Somerset tsunami amongst other things - plenty to capture the imagination.

Angela's beautifully constructed and sensitively written book is perfect for inspiring children to write their own stories as well as developing their own ideas about the characters in the book. Richly illustrated, Once Upon a Hillside would make a wonderful gift to share and enjoy again and again.

224 pages / Reviewed by Sue Wilsher, teacher